Hello there Destructoid. I don't game as much as I used to when I was an extremely active member of the website. I've had a 3rd kid as opposed to the 2 I had back when I joined and I've discovered that there are other things to do besides play video games. But I'm still a gamer for life.

Consoles:

Xbox 360

PS3

Wii

3DS

PS Vita

Decent PC for gaming

iPad

My Favorite Games:

I used to have a list here but honestly I've changed my mind quite a bit over the years. I played Chrono Trigger again like I do ever year or 2 and decided that it's dialogue, like many old (and many new) JRPGs, was just too shitty and juvenile for me to actually take seriously anymore. I guess I'm just getting old.

My favorite games in no particular order are Resident Evil 4, God of War, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past,Final Fantasy Tactics, Batman Arkham Asylum, and Chrono Cross. Pretty sure I've forgotten a few games I might remember when asked what my favorite games are in the future. It changes a lot.

This website used to be the best on the internet. Hopefully it will get back to that point, or close, some day soon. I'll probably never fully leave anyway.

When did this happen? I know, I know. It's always happened. Young people are clearly just more likely to be the idealistic type, even though what they want and think is usually ridiculous and unrealistic. One day they'll likely grow up and realize how shit works. Then they'll just be replaced by more young fools on another stupid and worthless crusade. It's a never ending cycle of shit. And life goes on. But since I'm bored, I thought I'd humor you with another stupid rant of my own, the difference being that I will use rational thoughts and ideas to explain myself, instead of letting my ultimately meaningless "feelings" get in the way. If only more people would do this sometimes.

Anyway, my "feelings" stem from reading the comments in this story about Call of Duty Black Ops, written by the unflappable-in-the-face-of criticism-about-his-typos Matthew Razak. Give the guy credit, he tries hard. Anyway, if you read the comments on this post you may begin to notice a trend. A few people are perfectly reasonable in stating their dislike for Treyarch developed CoD games. They simply say they don't want to buy it. Cool. Then their are a few like myself who try to tell people to not be so quick to judge something before you try it. And then we have the other people. The idealists whom I mentioned in the first paragraph of this trash. You know, the ones who refuse to buy Activision games because Activision likes money and is therefore an evil corporation. The guys who actually think they're going to make a difference. It's a somewhat admirable pursuit, I suppose, but it's also terribly misguided.

You see, the gaming industry exists for one reason and one reason only: To make a profit. That's it. There is literally not ONE major publisher who is trying to change people's lives, enlighten anyone, or even make somebody happy. They could a rats ass. Even Valve wants to make as much money as they can, as they proved by making an (admittedly great) sequel to Left 4 Dead only a year after it came out. Some companies like Valve do care about fans, but even the support and care they show is all part of keeping customers around so they can spend more cash on the games they sell.

To think you somehow can change this is ridiculous and frankly just plain idiotic. It's also a waste of your time and a great way to end up depriving yourself of some good games over the years. As we've seen, most gamers don't have the cajones to stick to their guns and not buy a game for whatever dumb reason they've cooked up. Even when they do what they said they would, the game they're boycotting is usually a big game like CoD, which means that the game loving but not totally hardcore people out there will end up ruining your big push for change. You see, just like in movies and books, the overwhelming majority of people don't pay attention to the everyday business dealings of large corporations. They just don't care who is getting fucked over, so long as they get to have nice stuff. If they did care, Nike and Apple would be out of business for hiring companies that employ Chinese people for dollars a day to make their products. But nobody cares. Well, some people do, but in general these people are just assholes with way too much free time on their hands. I know, they've got good intentions. I'm sure these video game fans with their ideals and morals are just the same.

Change will come on it's own over time. Eventually people will probably tire of Call of Duty games and stop buying them so much. But that time is not now. The brand is just far too popular for it to suddenly get beat buy a game like Medal of Honor, which hasn't had a good entry in the series in years. CoD games will likely continue to be extremely profitable for Activision for many years to come. People like to point to the Guitar Hero franchise and it's declining sales, and they love to back this up with the fact that Activision flooded the market. Well, I've got news for you. Guitar Hero is a totally different series that caters to a different fanbase than CoD does. Sure, there is probably a large overlap of people who have bought multiple editions of both franchises, but clearly GH is also more popular with the so-called casual crowd. It's a game that anybody can play for fun, whereas CoD has an intimidating control scheme for non-gamers, like most action games do. These people just do not see the need to continue buying new versions of the same game every year, which is actually ironic considering us hardcore gamers are usually the ones crying about the lack of innovation in games. It's just the way it is.

Even if every true blue hardcore gamer actually refused to buy CoD games, it would probably still sell in the range of 5 to 6 million copies this year. The average joe just doesn't give a shit about who made it; They see the name on the box and assume it must be awesome. It's been this way forever, and it's not about to change. So instead of making rash judgments about a game you've never played just because it's developed by somebody else or because it's made by an "evil corporation", why not chill the fuck out, smoke a joint or have a beer, and just roll with it? You don't have to buy this new CoD game. Hell, even I'm not buying it. I'm just not a big CoD fan, and that's fine. But you can bet your ass that if the new Spider-Man game turns out to be awesome, I'll be lining up to give Activision my money. They can have as much as they deserve based on performance, not morals or some other stupid shit like that.

Remember, as the great Gordon Gekko once said, "Greed is Good". Money makes the world go round, and that's something that will never change. Get the fuck over it and leave your heart at the door. You'll be doing yourself a great service.

PS: I wish I had more time for this stupid little rant of mine, but it's a busy morning here at home, what with getting kids ready to go to parties and all that wonderful stuff. That's what life is all about, really. Meeting new people and forming meaningful relationships based on how you're treated, not what people think. We all will disagree with things, but you can't change everything and everyone. Instead of getting angry, just get over it. You'll find you've probably been limiting yourself, something I can never support.